Cowlishaw: Baylor's Terrance Williams could bring something to the table rarely seen in Cowboys history

3/18

Tony Gutierrez/AP

Baylor wide receiver Terrance Williams responds to questions from reporters following a work out for NFL scouts during a pro-day workout at Baylor University Wednesday, March 20, 2013, in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

IRVING — The Cowboys’ history is a half
century filled with some of the NFL’s richest treasures — Lombardi trophies,
Hall of Fame players, the game’s most indelible moments.

One thing it is not filled with: Dallas-area star players.

Homegrown talent has been something of a rare commodity.
Maybe W. T. White’s Terrance Williams will be able to write a new page in the
team’s history.

For now, the Baylor wide receiver is merely the guy who
turned around the Cowboys’ 2013 draft.

That’s not to say the head-scratching selections of center
Travis Frederick in the first round and tight end Gavin Escobar in the second
are destined to be busts. But it wasn’t until the Cowboys chose Williams in the
third round with the pick that came from San
Francisco in that exchange of first-round picks that
anything really started to come into focus at Valley Ranch.

Even now this draft class is something of a blur with no
defensive linemen chosen to enhance Monte Kiffin’s 4-3 front.

But Williams has a chance over the next two or three
seasons to raise the grade on this class, maybe even substantially.

“It feels great to be here,” Williams said in his initial
Cowboys news conference, seated alongside Frederick and Escobar. “This is the
place I always wanted to be.”

Oddly enough, when I chatted briefly with Williams in the
parking lot — he was getting into a Porsche, I was getting into my Prius (not
sure what that says) — he said he had never even driven by the club’s Valley
Ranch facility.

“I pretty much didn’t go past the Galleria,” he said.

At Baylor last year, Williams went past almost everyone in
Big 12 secondaries to the tune of 97 catches for 1,832 yards. In one five-game
stretch, he caught 54 balls for 987 yards and six touchdowns.

Those five-game totals would be outstanding numbers for a
16-game rookie season, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Williams will be
behind Dez Bryant and Miles Austin on the depth chart at least for one more
season. It’s not until 2014 that Austin
could become anything close to expendable under the salary cap, and if he ever
returns to health and 2009 level production, that won’t be necessary.

Williams, soft-spoken, says all the right things about
just wanting to learn from Bryant, from Austin and all the rest. But as the
seventh wide receiver selected this weekend, he has the potential to develop as
the rare local hero.

You have to go back to the days of the late Harvey Martin
(South Oak Cliff) and cornerback Everson Walls (Richardson Berkner) to find
local products making Pro Bowl trips as Cowboys.

In recent years, the club has drafted the likes of
cornerbacks Josh Thomas (Cedar Hill) and Jacques Reeves (Lancaster) and wide
receiver Patrick Crayton (DeSoto). Only Crayton spent any significant time in
the starting lineup and certainly didn’t reach star level before departing for San Diego.

During the last Super Bowl era, the Cowboys drafted Roosevelt’s Kevin Williams as a replacement for return
man Kelvin Martin. He had one huge receiving game against Arizona (203 yards) but never achieved star
status.

What’s the ceiling for a player such as Williams?

There are skeptics because of the almost frantic nature of
today’s Big 12, in which quarterbacks and wide receivers break records on a
weekly basis. But Williams’ production in big games for the Bears at least
suggests he has the talent to deliver in his new (old) hometown.

Indianapolis’ T.Y. Hilton caught 50 of Andrew
Luck’s passes as a rookie third-round pick last season. Pittsburgh’s
Emmanuel Sanders, from SMU, and Denver’s
Eric Decker are third-round choices from the 2010 draft who have established
their place in the NFL.

The Cowboys have swung and missed with mid-round wide
receivers several times, to be sure. Williams, viewed as a second-round pick on
a lot of draft boards, seems more likely to deliver a hit.

“The hard part is done now,” Williams said of the somewhat
exhausting draft process. “Now it’s time to get back on the field and display
our talents. I look forward to that.”

Cheering on a Dallas
kid scoring touchdowns in a Cowboys uniform — some fans have looked forward to
that for ages, too.

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About Tim Cowlishaw

Tim Cowlishaw has been The Dallas Morning News' lead sports columnist since July 1998. Prior to that he covered the Cowboys for six seasons and the Stars for three as a beat reporter. He also covered the Rangers as a backup beat writer and was the San Jose Mercury News' beat writer on the San Francisco Giants in the late 1980s.

Tim has been appearing regularly on ESPN"s "Around the Horn" since the show made its debut in November 2002. He also worked with ESPN as part of the network's "NASCAR Now" coverage in 2007-08.

Favorite Dallas restaurants: Park, Nick and Sam's, Kenichi.

Worst sports prediction: His first in college ... that Earl Campbell had no shot at the Heisman Trophy.

Best sports memories: Seeing the Dallas Stars hoist the Stanley Cup long after midnight in Buffalo, watching the Dallas Cowboys win the Super Bowl and Texas win the national title in perfect Rose Bowl settings.